Playoff Musings

Hats off to Omaha for their regular season title. "Hats Off" is a weird phrase dating back to when wearing a hat was a sign of status and one would remove their hat as a sign of respect. Somewhere along the way, wearing a hat lost its symbolic attachment to status, but the phrase endures. 

But you're not here for Hat Talk. Or if you are here for that, you're about to be very disappointed in the turn this post is about to take. 

Quite the accomplishment for the Owls. For a season that started back in March, they had to be dominant for months and did so in such a way that they wrapped up the regular season crown with a game remaining. 

But it's playoff time. Omaha's reward for winning the regular season is obviously the Players' Shield, but also the top seed in the playoffs where they'll host Richmond on Sunday. 

Several years ago a friend of mine was complaining about the Major League Baseball playoffs, saying he couldn't believe this is how we determined the best team in the league. I gently reminded him that all the playoffs are is seeing who wins a tournament. It doesn't necessarily mean the winner was the best team.

And why would it? We wouldn't watch sports if the best team won every time. We tune in for the unpredictability. For what might, however unlikely, happen. If I could tell you right now that Omaha was going win its next three games and claim the title with 100 percent certainty, there'd be no point in watching the playoffs. (Except you Omaha fans, you would watch.)

So I have a simple question I want to explore. What do we want from the playoffs? 

First off, I'm already on record as saying I'm not a fan of the expanded playoff structure we have this year. It may make more sense when League One expands next season, but for this year, having two-thirds of the league making the playoffs is too many teams. And yes, I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't remember the video in that link earlier.

I'm also not one of those people who think we don't need the playoffs. While I understand that impulse, if nothing else, playoffs are fun and who doesn't want more fun? Especially in a knockout format where one bad game ends your season, it's high stakes (well, high sports stakes, it is ultimately a game). There's tension, anxiety, drama and, for one team, the elation at winning and advancing.

Setting aside the obvious that we want exciting, compelling games, what are we hoping to get out of this post season tournament? Certainly we don't just want the top teams to win each round and have the top two seeds play with Omaha coming out on top. (Again, not you, Omaha). But if we just want to reinforce the results of the regular season, there's no point in a postseason tournament. 

At the same time, we don't want wildly unpredictable results where somehow the bottom teams in the bracket spring upsets every year. At that point it just becomes unpredictable chaos and while that is fun from time to time, seeing that every year would lead to a sense that nothing that happens in the regular season matters.

I do my best to separate the regular season from the post-season. I mean, it's right there in the name. Post Season. It's after the season. A completely new thing. We had 22 games from March to October for the regular season. Treating it as a continuation of the regular season is intuitive, but a mistake. It's its own thing. (My day job is at a college, so I should have run that sentence by a composition professor rather than just hoping I did it right.)

What I want most from the seven playoff games we get are close, exciting matches. In my perfect world, there would probably be one upset (based on seeding) in the first two rounds, and then an exciting final. I don't have a preference as to what seed pulls the upset, but that would add just enough randomness to the bracket to keep it from being just a rehash of the regular season standings. 

Enjoy the playoffs everyone.